Author: andrewdlinden

That NASSH form an ad hoc committee to draft language indicating NASSH condemns the name of the teams with racialized mascots such as the DC football team. That committee should also create a mechanism for subsequent membership discussion and debate prior … Continue reading

I hope that you have enjoyed the President’s Forum: Taking Charge of the Future of Sport History at Academic Institutions. We are greatly appreciative to our colleagues who have contributed to the forum, offering perspective on the field, why it matters to us, why it matters to our colleagues … Continue reading

Most NASSH members are based in universities, and these are crazy-making times for universities, especially the publics. While the demand for and affirmation of higher education, university-based research and the leadership and resources that universities traditionally provide in the economy, sports and the arts are greater than ever before, the financial support … Continue reading

Previous contributors to the President’s Forum have captured the key issues confronting sport history as an academic subdiscipline. More significantly, they have proposed concrete strategies to nurture the field. In these regards there is little that I can add to this Forum, other than a reminder. Higher education is politically dynamic. Hence, … Continue reading

Thanks to all of the authors who have already shared their views on this topic. You have articulated very clearly, and very eloquently, the challenges that confront the field of sport history in post secondary educational institutions. I agree with these explanations of the current state of affairs and don’t feel that … Continue reading

Reading and re-reading the contributions to this NASSH President’s Forum has been illuminating and, to be candid, sometimes disheartening. I have learned a great deal from the previous five commentaries. And so I commend NASSH President Kevin Wamsley for initiating this dialogue and for asking people from different backgrounds and national … Continue reading

In responding to Kevin Wamsley’s Forum about the future of sport history, I will address what constitutes the field. Sport history, in my opinion, has three interrelated and constituent parts: sport history is an intellectual pursuit like other academic endeavours; sport history manifests in a number of ways – scholarship, conferences and … Continue reading

If we want to ensure that “sport history [is] supported as an important area of research”, as Kevin Wamsley asked his brief to contributors to this forum, we need to be institutionally savvy and politically sharp. Now that we’re all up to speed on sucking eggs…

Why do sports history? This is a question both for historians and students – and of course for university administrators.

Across the Anglophone world the humanities, and history in particular, are under attack as universities embrace a free-market model of tertiary education. Departments are shrinking, jobs are becoming more scarce, and the … Continue reading

I confess: prior to 2005, when I landed my first academic position, I had never heard the word kinesiology. That may not be entirely true. I probably heard it or read it somewhere (most likely on a NASSH program), but the term didn’t register. It didn’t resonate. I had no idea … Continue reading